I’m a little disappointed to see that. I think when you lose a game, when you’re 4-9 and you lose a game like you lost there, you should feel the pain of all that. And that pain should be enough that all you really want to do is just get to the locker room and get out of this uniform and get showered and get home and hope that your wife and kids still love you. Because sometimes, in a situation like that, they’re the only ones that really care.

But, you got to act like a professional and that situation was not the situation to ask somebody for an autograph. Now, if we had won and he had asked him for his autograph, I think that’s something different; but we lost this football game, we’re 4-9, and everybody says that’s just a little thing but these are the little things that are still affecting, infecting this football team and it’s not professional. You’re a professional; you’re on the same level as him.

You’ve never played meaningless football, have you? When you played, your team was always in the playoff hunt. These Cowboys are a four-win team that has no chance of making the playoffs.

No, they’re not and they’re still getting the effort, you know, but that effort is not being matched by talent, technique, assignments and being in place where you’re supposed to be. So, they’re playing hard and that’s good because they have nothing to play for. I played for 11 seasons; we made the playoffs 10 out of those 11 seasons. The one year we didn’t make the playoffs, we were out early. But with Tom Landry, you’re still playing like you’re going to the Super Bowl because you’re still being evaluated, and I think that’s the case with these players: they’re still being evaluated, so they’re still playing hard. But, they’re still making the mistakes we’ve seen throughout the season, so that tells me, yes, this is a 4-9 football team.

Wouldn’t it be better for the Cowboys to get a lot of positives out of a game but still lose it so that they could have a higher draft pick?

Yea, but you can’t play for that. If that happens, let’s take it when it happens; let’s cross that bridge when we get to it. You can’t play for that and if you’re playing for a draft pick that means you’re playing to lose. And how could you incorporate that, how could you relay that, how could you express that to your football team? You can’t, so you got to stay positive and hope things fall into place.

Now, if they don’t, then, well, evaluate the situation: who’s available when we do pick? And we do need to start finding some talent that can really help us through the draft and immediately, not guys that we need to develop; guys that can step in. There are so many areas this team needs help and if I’m drafting, I’m looking for a free safety, a safety in some kind of form or fashion and just a guy that can come up and forces runs but somebody who could cover and play deep and not let guys get behind them, especially on the first play of a football game.

In the game against the Eagles, who stood out to you? Who actually did their job well?

Jason Witten. Jason Witten, man, that guy is calm and he brings it. He’s old school; he can play with any era. And he has that style and I don’t know why it’s not infectious: the way he plays, the way he approaches the game and the professionalism. I don’t know why it’s not infectious throughout that football team, and the reason is they’re trying to ward it off. They don’t want that. But Jason Witten had a nice game and he continues to have nice games. He seems to be, now, that security blanket for Jon Kitna.

And when you put everything together and the intangibles of that position for a tight end, I think he’s better than Tony Gonzales and some of these others. I think he might be the best in the league and I wouldn’t say that in the beginning of the season because he wasn’t catching as many balls, they weren’t using him and he wasn’t showing his effectiveness as a route runner and pass catcher. But now he is and he even broke some tackles. Most of the time, when Jason catches a pass, he gets hit and he goes down. But, last night, he was breaking some tackles, especially on that second touchdown to get into the end zone. So I think he stood out; if I had to give a game ball to anybody in a losing situation, I’d give it to Jason Witten.

What’s going on with Mike Jenkins?

I don’t know; cornerbacks are so mental. They’re so temperamental and it’s really costing him. He has really gotten into a rut that he can’t get out of and now, teams see that and they start attacking him. And the play of the game was that 90-yarder, 20-20, 11-minutes, backed up, we stop them there, we get good field position…that kind of stuff. And then they throw on first down and he was there, he was making a great effort but I think the only difference of him making that play and him not was the pass. Michael Vick hung that football; you needed a catcher’s mitt. That was like a Nolan Ryan fastball. That ball was coming.